Hope returns to Japan as nuclear fears abate

Engineers stabilise reactor and are confident electricity will soon be restored, but the human misery continues
By Susie Mesure
The Independent (UK)
Sunday, 20 March 2011

After the bleakest nine days in its post-war history, Japan will start today with a crumb of optimism amid the first, tentative signs that it could yet avert catastrophe at its stricken nuclear plant.

Engineers hoped to restore power to the cooling systems at Fukushima Daiichi's damaged reactors this morning, if overnight equipment tests proved successful. Their aim is to restart water pumps that have been out of action since the main and back-up power systems failed following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

It is hoped that electricity to all six reactors will be restored by the end of today, after a 1.5km power cable was connected outside the plant yesterday, but there is no guarantee that the cooling systems will work given the extent of the damage. Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy director general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said: "To return the situation to normal we need power to bring the temperature down with normal methods."

(More here.)